Of all the things that technology has ruined for me, the one I miss most is solitary drunkenness.

Quality drunkenness has the hermetical, meditative and philosophical qualities of a pilgrimage. Two thousand years ago a man would walk forty days in the desert, stumbling in an ecstasy of oblivion if he wanted to learn some truth about himself, but the world has since become rather… full. So for the philosopher, the writer, the artist, drinking alone, stoically and soberly, may be the last refuge for this hermetical urge.

Pardon the details, but I had an epiphany on the toilet. Let me set the scene:

I had the place to myself for an entire weekend, so I decided that I would make a date with a bottle of red, the scraps of writing that I’d been amassing for the last six months, and enough time to mash it all into something worthwhile.

Somewhere along the line I found myself in the bathroom. Sitting on the toilet, the towel hanging on the wall opposite me, I stared for a minute at the texture of the loops and then– picked up my phone and logged onto Facebook. And it hit me: solitude is a thing of the past.

Even when we’re alone, studiously alone, we are tempted by technology to log back in. Social applications and the smart phones that carry them perform a benign function: they alleviate boredom. But unfortunately, like a molecule of carbon monoxide binding itself to a red blood cell with a fit better than any oxygen molecule could, these trinkets perform their task too well, suffocating us. They mimic the social interactions that we crave– having the approximate shape of socialization, but none of the real substance or benefit.

Watch a movie made around 1996. It’s still not old enough to look too old, yet you’ll notice one detail: the smart phone is not ubiquitous. The protagonist walks down the street and looks around, not down. The extras make gabbing noises to each other, not to the handsets mashed against their faces.

In some protest circles, you’ll hear cynical young people talking about “bread and circuses”. I’m sorry to report that the real bread and circuses– the meaningless but all-consuming distractions– of our time don’t live up to these spectres. In what all of the Orwells and Huxleys never could have guessed, the machinery of oppression has been unintentionally subverted, so that instead of being used– as our parents feared 40 years ago– to politically enslave us, it has instead, quite by accident, detached us not only from each other, but from ourselves; by robbing us of our loneliness and our silence, we can no longer know ourselves.

I can see this alienation in the face of one of my younger acquaintances, not quite old enough to have spent his formative years in the time before the instant-social-update explosion occurred. He is a prodigious Facebook user, with hundreds of “friends”, but when I speak with him he has a hard time looking me in the eye.

Loneliness is a critical, bittersweet part of the human experience. We constantly seek to avoid it, but we need it nonetheless. Like any other kind of exercise or diet, it is the hardship of it that strengthens us. With the advent of the instant update, the multitude of nearly-unknown “friends”, the faucet of colourful distraction always ready to be opened, we don’t have to face solitude, don’t have to cope with boredom.

We need loneliness. We need solitude. We need boredom. Our generation needs a Hemingway. You don’t tweet from the sidelines of a gory bullfight.

About The Writer

Zouch Editors Zouch Editors

I hear you. Our goal right now should be to strike a modern balance, to plug this leak of things fundamental to the human experience and our creative & philosophical development. The current state of the spill is our culture cascading into the sewers awash in the muck of everyones’ dirty laundry. But I do believe that in the future, we’ll see a rekindling of our urges for stoic solitude and spirits; new forms of desperate loneliness will take shape and guide us forward with a newfangled sense of wonderment about your ‘ecstasy of oblivion’.

Great commentary on society and the twitter-FB-social media age. I often wish my internet would be “down” when I have to do some work. That “Twitter” tab open on my browser is so tempting…I’m a victim too.

I think the scariest thing I’ve observed in myself is the slow erosion of my attention span. We’re all looking for a quick fix.

Makes you wonder: did some of our current social malaises (e.g. skyrocketing consumer debt) come about because these technologies have been dulling our perception of consequences & reality, or are these technologies flourishing because of something innate within us?

MadiSid

I have been known to worry about the younger and future generations of “modern” society not even having a small window of time to experience not constantly being turned on to everything and everyone. But there is a silver lining, in that the undisciplined and moldable youth of today and tomorrow have boundless potential to reignite the basic human desire for community. Where a lot of people see humanity becoming “trapped” within technology and connectivity, I see a wondrous horizon approaching, an entrance to a true and pure “global village”. Taking the step from consistently tweeting where I am going, who I am talking to, and what I am learning, to the branches and fields and oceans of physically meeting and conversing with those sharing in this activity, has inconsequential risks when weighed with the benefits. The only real external requirement is a little inspiration, a little hope; with dreams of such already exceeded in leaps and bounds thanks to these “free” social media tools. There is no control over anyone when you are simply aware that you can carry the conversation over into real life, between individuals; the ability to save each other and the world, one person at a time.

I think you’ve said it perfectly; the technology isn’t the problem per se; it’s how it is used. I wrote a little follow-up blog note to this article a few weeks ago on my personal site (link’s on my user name), basically saying that my initial condemnation of Twitter was based in partial ignorance.

I’m inspired by your comment– taking the next step and moving these networks from virtual to physical, in-the-flesh connections is a bold and necessary step that’ll totally reverse the effect of these technologies– they’ll liberate rather than entrap.

The only caveat I’d add is one from the other article you commented on, Slaves to Free Networks– these technologies may have the potential for great social benefit, but the companies that control them don’t necessarily have such altruistic goals.

Things we like

Conceived of and produced by the team who bring you the prestigious International Songwriting Competition (ISC), Unsigned Only is a fresh and novel approach to other music competitions. Unsigned Only is a unique music competition designed for solo artists, bands, and singers all over the world who are not signed to a major label record company or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, or imprints. The goal of Unsigned Only is to find an outstanding, talented performer: a band, singer, or solo artist; a newcomer or veteran; raw or polished -- the “gem” that needs to be discovered. Unsigned Only is looking for the total package.